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How My thriller Novel’s Antagonist became the star of the show
How The Antagonist Took Over I wrote a Christmas thriller, something closer to Die Hard than Love Actually, with a smattering of the latter thrown in. But it turns out that like Hans Gruber in Die Hard, my antagonist took over. Locked Down With No Christmas Trappings I was living in Riyadh, without any Christmas… Read more
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Five Great Christmas Thrillers
Christmas thrillers are different from Christmas mysteries. In thrillers, people try to stop something from happening – or cause it to happen. In mysteries, people try to solve how or why the event happened. Yet whenever I search for Christmas thrillers, I’m directed to undoubtably excellent murder mysteries, often set in snowbound mansions in the… Read more
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Ten Facts I learned from reading Ian Fleming’s James Bond Books
This year, I’ve been reading Ian Fleming’s James Bond books. It’s been interesting. At times, I wanted to give up on them because some of the attitudes make for uncomfortable reading. However, something about them kept drawing me back. Here are ten things I learned about the secret service world Ian Fleming created. 1. Badass… Read more
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Octopussy and The Living Daylights: Reading 007
Octopussy and the Living Daylights Octopussy and The Living Daylights is the second James Bond short story collection, but it’s slimmer and lighter (of interest) than For Your Eyes Only. Which isn’t surprising, as there are only four stories, and one of them barely counts. That said, the two ‘title-track’ stories are among the best… Read more
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No Way To Live Christmas Playlists
getting to know the characters No Way To Live is a Christmas thriller, set across a week in December, just as shops, cafes and radio stations start ramping up the Christmas music. One way I decided to get to know the main characters was to create a Christmas playlist for each of them. See what… Read more